There's Brotherly Love, and Then There's Insider Trading

The connection between the law of insider trading and the nature of the sibling relationship may not be immediately obvious -- but the U.S. Supreme Court will consider it Wednesday in what may be one of the most interesting cases of a term that the justices have designed to be boring. Salman v. U.S. turns on whether one brother derives “personal benefit” from providing insider information to another brother who trades on it. Regardless of which answer it chooses, the court will essentially have to offer an analysis of brotherly love -- and what it does for the siblings.

The facts are pretty simple. Maher Kara worked for Citigroup. He loved his brother Michael Kara very much, and repeatedly shared insider information with him, knowing that Michael would trade on it. Eventually, Michael began sharing the information with Maher’s brother-in-law, Bassam Salman, who also traded on it.